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The 2034 FIFA World Cup will be the 25th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. In December 2024, Saudi Arabia was formally confirmed as the host nation by FIFA following an uncontested bidding process. It will be the third tournament hosted in Asia, after Japan and Korea in 2002 and Qatar in 2022. Saudi Arabia will be the second host nation from the Arabian Peninsula in the space of twelve years.

FIFA restricted the hosting eligibility to Asia or Oceania after it made the decision to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup on three continents (Africa, Europe and South America). Observers characterized this as bending FIFA rules to pave the path for Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 edition by substantially reducing potential competing host bids. FIFA also unexpectedly sped up the bidding timeline by at least three years, which hindered other potential bidders. According to reporting by The New York Times, FIFA president Gianni Infantino played a key role in bending FIFA's rules and facilitating the selection of Saudi Arabia as host.

Host selection

The bidding process for the 2034 World Cup began on 4 October 2023 and initially used the same requirements as the 2030 World Cup. FIFA later lowered the requirement for the number of existing stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40,000 from seven to four. Due to FIFA's confederation rotation policy, only member associations from the Asian Football Confederation and Oceania Football Confederation were eligible to host. FIFA made the decision to host the 2030 World Cup in three continents (Africa, Europe and South America) and the 2026 World Cup was set to be held in North America, which meant that the 2034 World Cup would necessarily have to be held in Asia or Oceania.

On 31 October 2023, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that Saudi Arabia would host the 2034 World Cup, making it the third time the Asian Football Confederation has or will host the World Cup, after the 2002 tournament, which was hosted in Japan and South Korea, and the 2022 tournament in Qatar. It is also the second time it will be held in the Middle East, after Qatar 2022.

According to investigative reporting by The New York Times, Infantino played a key role in the selection of Saudi Arabia as host. He engaged in private diplomacy on Saudi Arabia's behalf, as he explored whether Greece would be willing to partner with Saudi Arabia to host the 2030 World Cup. When Spain, Portugal and Morocco announced that they would bid together for the 2030 World Cup, the Saudis considered it unlikely that the bid could be beaten. Thus, the Saudis backed out of bidding for 2030. FIFA subsequently made two moves that The New York Times described as "curious", as FIFA announced that the first three games of the 2030 World Cup would be played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay while the rest would be played in Spain, Morocco and Portugal. This decision ruled Europe, Africa and South America out as potential bidders for the 2034 World Cup, and meant that the only potential bidders could be from Asia or Oceania. FIFA also unexpectedly sped up the bidding process for the 2034 World Cup, giving only 25 days for interested nations to express their intent to host. Within minutes, Saudi Arabia announced its intentions to host.

On 11 December 2024, FIFA confirmed that the 2034 World Cup would be hosted by Saudi Arabia. The decision was announced during an Extraordinary FIFA Congress meeting, where the hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 tournaments were finalized following a vote.

2024 Extraordinary FIFA Congress 11 December 2024 – Zürich, Switzerland
Nation	Round 1
Saudi Arabia	Acclamation

Venues

The official list of stadiums was confirmed on 31 July 2024 by the bid book. The tournament will be held in 5 cities, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Abha and Neom, with a total of 15 stadiums (11 of which will be new). The King Salman Stadium in Riyadh is expected to host the opening and final.

In addition to the venues, 2 FIFA Fan Festival locations have been proposed in each of the host cities. The draw of the groups will take place at the planned Line Convention Center, located in The Line, Neom.

Teams

Qualification

•  Saudi Arabia (host)

Controversies

Human rights

The selection of Saudi Arabia as a host has already attracted controversy due to human rights violations in the country. Law, human rights, and Saudi activists have asked for FIFA to put pressure on the country to improve its human rights record, similar to the pressure put on Qatar when it hosted in 2022. The trade union Building and Wood Workers' International has warned that FIFA awarding Saudi Arabia the tournament goes against their conditions of human rights. When Clifford Chance did an assessment of human rights in the country, the report was criticised by eleven rights organisations including, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The nontransparent nature of the bid has also been criticised by Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness, who stated that despite the reforms after the 2015 FIFA corruption case, little measures were taken to ensure that hosts met risk and human rights assessments; the NFF later abstained from voting on 11 December. Norwegian club Fredrikstad have put pressure on their federation to boycott the tournament. On 11 November 2024, Amnesty International called on FIFA to stop the bidding process for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, citing human rights concerns in Saudi Arabia. On 21 November 2024, ITUC-Africa filed a complaint to the United Nations over the mistreatment of African migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and warned that the 2034 FIFA World Cup could amplify existing problems for migrant workers. On 25 November 2024, United States Senators Ron Wyden and Dick Durbin urged FIFA not to award the 2034 FIFA World Cup to Saudi Arabia citing human rights concerns for citizens, workers, athletes, tourists, and members of the press in the country with no guarantee that human rights would be upheld during the tournament. Three days later, German and Danish MEPs Daniel Freund and Niels Fuglsang respectively criticised the closed door nature of the bid and suggested for a boycott if the tournament was awarded to Saudi Arabia to as they believed it was the only way to ensure a prevention of human rights violations. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for FIFA to keep human rights as the top priority for hosting the tournament in Saudi Arabia.

Despite this, some football federations that were previously critical of Qatar during their World Cup such as The Football Association, the Danish Football Association, the German Football Association, the Swiss Football Association, the Swedish Football Association, and the Royal Belgian Football Association have either backed Saudi Arabia or remained silent. DBU chairman Jesper Møller and DBU secretary general Erik Brogger Rasmussen have stated that they are optimistic that the human rights situation will improve by the start of the World Cup as part of Saudi Vision 2030; the FA stated that they would back Saudi Arabia to avoid accusations of hypocrisy if they wanted England to participate; the RFBA congratulated Saudi Arabia for their bid and were also optimistic about human rights improving; the ASF-SFV backed Saudi Arabia but called for an independent human rights group to monitor the situation; the SvFF backed Saudi Arabia's bid to much protest within the fedederation resulting in several resignations after the bidding process vote; the DFB later decided to support Saudi Arabia with a goal of working to improve the human rights situation. Meanwhile, German coach Julian Nagelsmann and German captain Joshua Kimmich stated that despite the host being Saudi Arabia, they will not make a protest about the human rights conditions in the country like the German team did in 2022 and instead focus on football.

Immigrants

Immigrants and labourers in the wider Gulf region face harsh living conditions, discrimination and racism in violation of their human rights according to NGOs. In Saudi Arabia they predominantly come from South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, with the top five nationalities being India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Egypt. Deaths among labourers are unusually high, with around four Bangadeshis dying every day in 2022. Amnesty International said that the human cost of awarding the world cup to Saudi Arabia was high and that “many will die”.

Environmental concerns

Fossil Free Football has raised concerns about the tournament stating that the amount of new stadiums that would be built would increase pollution, and that the tournament would be used to greenwash the country's fossil fuel industry.

Scheduling

Owing to Saudi Arabia's climate, sporting events in the country typically take place during the cooler months of the year. For example, the 2024–25 Saudi Pro League runs from August until May. In particular, the peak months of the Northern Hemisphere summer present particularly difficult conditions for playing sport in the country, with minimum nighttime temperatures of 26–29 °C and daily mean temperatures of 33–37 °C between May and September.

The climate of neighbouring Qatar is similar to that of Saudi Arabia. When Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup, the tournament was held in November and December in order to ensure comfortable playing conditions. There has therefore been speculation that the 2034 tournament may be scheduled at a similar time of year.

European football leagues generally run from August until May, meaning that the 2022 scheduling interrupted the European football season. Football competitions in many other parts of the world in which FIFA World Cup players also compete, however, either do not run over the Northern Hemisphere winter at all (for example, China, Japan, and Brazil), or start or end very close to the Northern Hemisphere winter, to the extent that disruption to competition at this time of year is minimal (such as Argentina, Colombia, and Egypt). Despite this, the majority of the world's best players compete in European leagues and competitions. Academic meta-analysis of the impacts of playing a major international tournament in the middle of European club seasons suggests the performance of players was improved by the change in scheduling as compared to other tournaments. Commentators also suggested that games were entertaining for their high quality of football.

Consternation over the scheduling of the World Cup in Qatar came from European fans who had become accustomed to experiencing World Cup tournaments in the middle of the European summer, with traditions of watching games in outdoor spaces at bars or in public parks, and who felt their experience would be diminished by not being able to do this in winter. Across parts of the world in which the climate is hostile to social watching of the tournament when held in June or July, however, a winter tournament meant that, for the first time, fans were able to have this experience.

Other potential scheduling issues may include Ramadan in December as well as Saudi Arabia's status as host of the 2034 Asian Games in November and December. The International Olympic Committee has stated that they do not perceive a risk of a schedule clash between the FIFA World Cup and the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States.

See also

• Football in Saudi Arabia
• FIFA World Cup
• FIFA World Cup hosts

Notes

1. The FIFA extraordinary congress was held online

References

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External links

• Growing. Together. The Saudi Arabia FIFA World Cup™ 2034 Bid at FIFA

• 2034 FIFA World Cup
• FIFA World Cup tournaments
• 2034 in association football
• 2034 in Saudi Arabian sport
• Scheduled association football competitions